Desert Turtle is a multimedia performance piece created by Mitsu Salmon and Kikù Hibino around ideas of shelter,

landscapes, and migration. The songs blend ambiance, electronic beats and emotive vocals to

create a soundscape which draws from family history, voice, and geology. 

Mitsu’s mother arrived from the wet and dense city of Fukuoka, Japan, to the vast and dry

Mojave desert. She related to the turtle she found in the landscape, hiding in their shells and

traveling with their home on their back. In Japan, a turtle was a symbol of longevity, and in the

expanse of the Mojave desert, she felt a sense of infiniteness. However, across the mountains,

there was the testing of the atomic bomb. As if such a thing still needed testing, she thought.

Desert Turtle is an album connected to these histories, places, and the current moment. To create

the album, Mitsu spent time in the Mojave desert recording and writing. Side A is a collaboration

with sound artist and electronic musician Kikù Hibino. Voices in the Dunes takes from Mitsu’s

field recording, and her mother’s voice overlaps with Mitsu’s singing. Subterranean explores

heavy bass and lyrics related to the underground testing. Side B uses Mitsu’s vocal looping and

simple synths melodies and rhythms such as in the track Animism, which looks at the metaphor

of the turtle and Bones about traveling with one’s ancestors.